Summer Milky Way Rising With Airglow Over Colorado

Astrophotographer Daniel McVey sent in a photo of the Milky Way rising with airglow visible over Summit County, Colorado, taken in May 2013. He writes:…Read More »

"The lights in the background are coming from nearby mountain towns as well as a soft glow from the city of Denver. The reds and greens are what is known as airglow." The phenomenon is caused by several processes in the upper atmosphere. Less «

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Triple Planet Alignment Seen on Haleakala Summit, Maui

Credit: Mike Dillinger

Astrophotographer Mike Dillinger sent in a photo of the planetary conjuction of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter, taken from Haleakala Summit on Maui, HI, May 26, 2013.

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29% Waxing Crescent Moon Over Tucson, AZ

Credit: BG Boyd

Astrophotographer BG Boyd sent in a photo of a 29% waxing crescent moon taken on May 15, 2013, Tucson, AZ.

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Saturn Over Cranford, NJ

Credit: Tony Sharfman

Astrophotographer Tony Sharfman sent in a photo of Saturn taken in Cranford, NJ, May 20, 2013.

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Horsehead Nebula Imaged in Florida

Credit: Steve Coates

Astrophotographer Steve Coates sent in a photo of Barnard 33, the Horsehead Nebula, taken from what he calls his "light-polluted backyard" in Ocala, Florida.…Read More »

MIlky Way Airglow Meteor Over Branch Pond Maine

Mike Taylor captured this image of the Milky Way, green airglow, aurora borealis and the blazing tail of a meteor over Branch Pond, Maine on June 10, 2013. [Read the full Story]

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Super Kids See Supermoon

Credit: Tyler S. Leavitt

Astrophotographer Tyler S. Leavitt sent in a photo of kids dressed as superheroes watching the supermoon of June 23, 2013, outside Las Vegas, Nevada. [Full Story]

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Supermoon Towers Over Washington Monument

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

A supermoon climbed its way to the top of the Washington Monument, Sunday, June 23, 2013, in Washington in this photo by NASA photographer Bill Ingalls.…Read More »

This year the supermoon is up to 13.5 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than a typical full moon is. This is a result of the moon reaching its perigee — the closest that it gets to the Earth during the course of its orbit. During perigee on June 23 the Moon was about 221,824 miles away, as compared to the 252,581 miles away that it is at its furthest distance from the Earth (apogee). [Full Story] Less «

Night Sky and Fireflies

Astrophotographer Kevin Palmer sent in a intriguing photo of fireflies beneath the night sky of Weinberg King State Park, IL, taken at the beginning of July 2013.

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Milky Way Over Machu Picchu

Credit: Thomas O'Brien | www.tmophoto.com

Thomas O'Brien sent SPACE.com this image of the Milky Way over Machu Picchu on July 4, 2013. He captured the photo from Putucusi Mountain, which is located…Read More »

across the Urubamba River Valley from the historic sanctuary of Machu Picchu, Peru. Machu Picchu is the dark, saddle-shaped area between mountains on right side of the image where the arc of the Milky Way intersects with the horizon. [Read the Full Story] Less «

Milky Way and Star Trails Over Rural Maine

Mike Taylor sent SPACE.com this photo, which is a composite of 81 frames from a static time lapse of the Milky Way moving across the sky over rural Maine.…Read More »

Taylor stacked the frames of this sequence to make a standard star trails image and then blended/masked in a single frame of the Milky Way. He used a Nikon D7000 camera and a Tokina 11-16mm at 11mm, f/2.8, 25 sec, ISO 1600 on June 10, 2013 to capture the image. Posted July 9, 2013. [Read the Full Story] Less «

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Fireworks and the Moon

Credit: Giuseppe Petricca

Astrophotographer Giuseppe Petricca captured this dazzling photo of the quarter moon and fireworks over Pisa, Italy on June 16, 2013. Petricca snapped…Read More »

the photos during a fireworks display launched from the Arno River during Pisa's Patron Saint's Day celebrations. Photo posted on July 4. [Read the Full Story] Less «

Blue Sun Alan Friedman

Alan Friedman took this image of the sun from his backyard in Buffalo, New Yorkon May 14, 2013 with a 90mm Coronado CaK telescope and a PGR Grasshopper…Read More »

Express 6 megapixel camera. He applied a specific color of extreme violet light called CaK in this image that makes the sun appear to look intensely blue. Friedman then false color-inverts the image. The process highlights the sun’s surface including texture, bright sunspots, and hot active regions appearing dark. Image posted on July 3. [Read the Full Story] Less «

M27 Dumbbell Nebula Collaboration

Behold, the Dumbbell Nebula! Stargazers Flex Cosmic Muscle with Amazing Photo
Three stargazers exercised their passion for night sky photography to create a stunning image of Messier 27, also known as the Dumbbell Nebula or NGC 6853. [Full Story]
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15, 2013. The photo includes Cygnus (The Swan), with the North America nebula (NGC 7000). Down to the right lies the constellation of Sagittarius and many nebulas: M16, M17, M24, M20, and M8, plus the supergiant star Antares. At the top, the bright star is Vega, in the constellation of Lyra, which forms the well-known Summer Triangle with Deneb and Altair. At the left edge of the image, between the arc of the Milky Way and the horizon, Andromeda Galaxy M31 shines. Above the horizon line, the green/yellow band represents the airglow phenomenon. [ See More Images ] Less «

Falcon 9 Launch Trajectory Composite

A photographer's road trip to see SpaceX's first Falcon 9 rocket launch from California last month led to this striking composite photo recently released…Read More »

to SPACE.com. Photographer David A. Kodama captures the SpaceX rocket launch in stages. A photographer's road trip to see SpaceX's first Falcon 9 rocket launch from California last month led to this striking composite photo recently released to SPACE.com. Photographer David A. Kodama captures the SpaceX rocket launch in stages. A photographer's road trip to see SpaceX's first Falcon 9 rocket launch from California last month led to this striking composite photo recently released to SPACE.com. Photographer David A. Kodama captures the SpaceX rocket launch in stages. [Read the Full Story] Less «

Nebulae IC 59 and IC 63

Bob and Janice Fera took this photo of the nebulae IC 59 and 63 between Sept. 4 and 7, from Eagle Ridge Observatory in Foresthill, Calif. They used an…Read More »

Officina Stellare RC-360AST 14" f/8 Ritchey Chretien Cassegrain telescope with a two-element field flattener to observe the nebula. An Apogee Alta U16M CCD camera with Astrodon filters was used to capture the photo. [Read the Full Story] Less «

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Sunday Night's Moon of Nov. 10, 2013

Credit: Eric Steiner

Eric Steiner sent in a photo of the moon taken Sunday night, Nov. 10, 2013, shot in Bristol, CT.

Aurora Over Maine Farmhouse by Taylor

Mike Taylor sent SPACE.com this photo of an aurora over a farmhouse in central Maine. He captured the image on Dec. 7, 2013 at 11:30 p.m. local time using…Read More »

a Nikon D600 camera and 14-24 mm at 14, f/2.8, 30 seconds, ISO 3200. The Andromeda Galaxy and a section of the Milky Way can also be spotted in this the image. The photo was processed through Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS5. [Read the Story Behind the Photo Here] Less «

Comet Lovejoy Over Aurora by Tommy Eliassen

Tommy Eliassen sent SPACE.com this image of Comet Lovejoy soaring over an aurora taken from Hemnesberget, Nordland, Norway, on Nov. 28, 2013.

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2013 Geminid Meteor Shower over Boulder, Colorado

Credit: Cody Limber

Astrophotographer Cody Limber sent in a composite image of Geminid meteors falling over Boulder, CO, on Dec. 14, 2013. He writes: "I used 25 out of the…Read More »

600 images that I took over the course of the night to make this composite shot. To capture the shot, I set my camera on interval shooting mode starting at about 12:30 and ending at around 3 am. During this time the moon set and the sky became perfectly clear. I was worried that clouds might be a problem because when I looked outside at 9:00 it was completely cloudy, but fortunately it cleared up at around 1:00 am, and I was able to get the shot." [See More Amazing Geminid Meteor Shower Photos for 2013 Here] Less «

International Space Station Full Moon Over Yosemite

The International Space Station streaks across the sky as the full moon glows over Half Dome Yosemite National Park in this image. Scott McGuire captured…Read More »

this image on Oct. 28, 2012 from Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park, California. He used a Pentax K-5 camera and a Pentax 15mm Limited lens to capture the photo. Image sent to SPACE.com in Feb. 2013. [Read the Full Story Behind this Photo Here] Less «

Venus and Moon Over Wedding Reception

Photographer Dustin Prickett sent SPACE.com this stunning image of bride Karly Kryza and the groom Lucas Farmer embracing during their wedding reception…Read More »

at Cross Creek Ranch in Dover, Fla., on Sept. 8. The moon and Venus also shared a close encounter that evening, as seen toward the top left of the image, in what astronomers call a "conjunction," when two celestial objects appear near each other when viewed from Earth. [Read the Full Story Behind this Photo Here] Less «

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The Running Man Nebula

Credit: Bob and Janice Fera

Astrophotographers Bob and Janice Fera took this image of NGC 1973, also known as the Running Man Nebula, on Jan. 2 to Jan. 4, from Eagle Ridge Observatory…Read More »

in Foresthill, Calif. The Feras used an Officina Stellare RC-360AST 14" f/8 Ritchey Chretien Cassegrain telescope with two-element field flattener to observe nebula. An Apogee Alta U16M CCD camera with Astrodon filters was used to capture the photo. [Read the Full Story Behind this Photo Here] Less «

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Moonrise Venus Photo Sequence Over Ganges River Talwar

Credit: Ajay Talwar / The World at Night

Veteran night sky photographer Ajay Talwar of the astrophotography group The World at Night took this photo of the moon and planet Venus rising over the…Read More »